William Shakespeare was a poet and playwright who lived in the 16th century. He is regarded as one of the greatest writers in the history of the English language. You might know him as the author of the famous “Romeo and Juliet.” Many of the English idioms we use to this day were invented or popularized by Shakespeare – you’ll learn eight of them in this lesson!
AT/IN ONE FELL SWOOP
= all at once, in a single and sudden action
Let’s say
you have 100 unread e-mails in your inbox. If you select them all and delete
them with a single click, you have deleted them in one fell swoop –
with a single quick action (not slowly or one by one).
A SORRY SIGHT
= someone or
something that is unpleasant to look at, or makes you sad to look at
Imagine
there’s a park in your city that used to be beautiful, but due to lack of
maintenance it is now dirty and full of trash. You could describe that as a
sorry sight.
A FOREGONE CONCLUSION
= a result
that is unable to be avoided
If surveys
show that 90% of the population supports one candidate in an election, then it
is a foregone conclusion that this candidate will be elected.
THE BE-ALL AND END-ALL
= the very
best and most important thing, which makes everything else insignificant
We often use
this expression in the negative form – “it’s not the be-all and end-all” – to
say that something is not the most important or the only thing
that matters. For example, when it comes to grades, final exam results are
not the be-all and end-all – the teacher also considers all
the quizzes, homework, and student participation throughout the course.
WITH BATED BREATH
= with
anticipation and suspense (like you are holding your breath from the tension)
Usually used
with the verb “wait” – for example, if your best friend is one of three
finalists in a singing competition, you would be waiting with bated
breath for the winner to be announced.
COLD COMFORT
= something
that is supposed to make you feel better, but it doesn’t do so very well
Let’s say
you are going to go on vacation, but due to an emergency you have to cancel it.
Fortunately, you get refunds from the airline and hotel – but it’s cold
comfort. It’s a positive thing, but it doesn’t make you feel better
about the overall situation – the fact that your vacation was canceled.
GOOD RIDDANCE!
= happy that
something/someone has gone away
Imagine your
sister has a boyfriend who doesn’t treat her very well, and you don’t like him.
Finally, your sister gets tired of the bad treatment and breaks up with the
guy. You could say, “Good riddance!” because you are glad he
is out of your sister’s life.
A WILD GOOSE CHASE
= a
difficult or impossible search for or pursuit of something
Imagine you
have a very old computer, and part of it breaks. You want to repair it, so you
start looking for a replacement part in electronics stores, online, etc. But it
turns out that part isn’t manufactured anymore – so you’ve been on a wild
goose chase (an impossible pursuit).